Hurricane Katrina- Take 2
Last week I wrote about how upset I was that people were actually shooting at the rescuers in the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. A lot has happened in a week. For the last few days, army troops have been moving people left behind out of the city. Cities all over the United States are taking the people in, who are being referred to as refugees. Police, fire, Army National Guard, Red Cross and other workers from all over the United States are working in the area. The nightly news is now called the “Hurricane Katrina Update” as if there is no other news in the entire world. Driving down the street, you see people with cans raising money for victims. Every store seems to have something at the cash register for donations to the Katrina victims. Most gasoline is now about 35 cents more a gallon. The newspaper is filled with hurricane stories in all of its sections. The price tag for the cost to the federal government is now set at $100,000,000,000 (that number is 100 billion, about 800 billion RMB) The whole catastrophe is beyond the scope of one’s imagination, and yet it is so real and will effect so many people for the rest of their lives. One interesting aspect is that the people most effected by the hurricane were the people who did not have cars and credit cards to enable them to leave the area. The result is that the hurricane effected the poorest of the poor, some who were already ill, disabled or homeless. This has brought to forefront the problem of rich and poor in our country. There are no easy answers, but the problems brought by the storm are not going to go away.